Tuesday, December 31, 2013

Though her scholarship has attracted important and considerable criticism for being partial, polemical, and in some cases tendentious, even some of her critics, such as Sidney Griffith, have acknowledged that at the very least we owe a debt to Bat Ye'or (a nom de plume) for making the concept of dhimmitude more widely known to such an extent that it can no longer be ignored by those studying the encounter between Eastern Christians and Islam. As I have noted on here several times, other scholars have now come out with other, serious books from major publishers deepening our understanding of dhimmitude, that second-class status affixed to many Jews and Christians under various Islamic governments up to the collapse of the Ottoman Empire.

Understanding Dhimmitude brings together for the first time twenty-one talks and lectures in which Bat Ye’or explains in layman’s terms the essential concepts from her studies, the fruit of over four decades of groundbreaking research.

Saturday, December 28, 2013

Ines Murzaku of Seton Hall University e-mailed me the other day to say she has a new book coming out next year with Peeters, part of their Eastern Christian Studies series, whose other titles you may read here.The publisher lists it as still in production, so there is no Amazon link yet, but the book is entitled Monastic Tradition in Eastern Christianity and the Outside World: a Call for Dialogue. Here is the description from them:

This volume's focus is threefold, thus corresponding to its tri-partite
topical division: to analyze Eastern monasticism's unique place in the
life transforming journey to theosis; Eastern monasticism's
hospitality and mutual encounters with culture; and Eastern and Western
monasticism's hospitality to Christian and non-Christian religions,
including Buddhism, Hinduism and Islam (even though Islam does not have
any monastic institution, its adherents have been historically in
dialogue with Christian monastics and have the potential to achieve a
spiritual affinity with monks of other religious traditions). The three
parts of the volume share one unifying argument: monasticism's special
call to spiritually symbiotic relationship or impact on the very
socio-politic-historic structures of reality. The topics are explored
from historical, theological, and literary standpoints. The volume's
overall intention is to help make monastic ecumenical engagement or its
potential for inter-faith dialogue better known, appreciated, and
relevant within inter-religious dialogue.

Tuesday, December 24, 2013

As we get ready to celebrate the nativity of Christ, we are reminded that God did not send an idea into the world or a philosophical system or series of propositions, still less a mere moral code for achieving virtue. He sent, of course, a person, and that person calls other persons not to a "religion" or an "institution" directly, but to a relationship (one that is, of course, ecclesially and sacramentally mediated). For this reason, and long before I had ever begun to read the controversial Greek Orthodox polemicist Christos Yannaras, I have always found myself resistant to describing Christianity as a "religion," a term that I still avoid whenever possible because of its hugely problematic connotations--to say nothing of the fact that sociologists, philosophers, and other scholars find it notoriously difficult to define with any coherence. In many of his earlier works, Yannaras hints at problems with this term, but in his new book he attacks it directly and fully: Against Religion: the Alienation of the Ecclesial Event, trans. Norman Russell (Holy Cross, 2013), 217pp.

About this book (which I'm reviewing for the newly founded Catholic Review of Books) we are told:

What is religion? In this book Christos Yannaras argues that it is a human construct, the product of our instincts of self-preservation and self-perpetuation, which bolsters our sense of securty as individuals, promising us eternal happiness. Against this, Yannaras sets the commitment of faith, defining it as an act of trust, self-offering and self-transcendence. For a Christian, faith is lived within the ecclesial events, that is to say, within a mode of relations of communion embodied in Christ.

And with this, I shall sign off until after the feast. See you at the end of the month. Znamy boh!

Sunday, December 22, 2013

Though Amazon's recent musings about same-day delivery via drones has not of course come to pass, there is still time for you to order books for the Eastern Christian bibliophile in your family or among your friends--especially if you celebrate on the "old" calendar! I take the liberty of reposting from last month my look back at some notable publications of 2013.

Twice in as many years I've put together a list of books that interested readers may peruse when trying to find something to buy for the Eastern Christian bibliophile on their Christmas list, or otherwise seeking to enrich their own libraries. The 2011 list is here, and the 2012 list is here.

I've done that again for 2013, focusing for the most part on books published just this year--which, as you'll soon see, is a formidable list but even this list is just a sampling of what has emerged this year. I expect that 2014 will be at least as prolific in publications if not more so. Though most of the books noted below presuppose some intellectual formation and academic background on the part of readers--that is, they are for adults--I did note here some recent, vibrant publications for children that I commend to your attention. Iconography:
One of the most fascinating large and hefty collections of academic articles on icons, Icons in Time, Persons in Eternity: Orthodox Theology and the Aesthetics of the Christian Image, was noted here. Ashgate also brought out another scholarly collection on icons, which was noted here.

Also on the topic of iconoclasm is a new book by the leading scholar of it today in its Byzantine context, Leslie Brubaker, Inventing Byzantine Iconoclasm, some details of which are here, where I also note other recent books on the topic by Brubaker.

Finally, this past summer I discovered a new (to me) book on Romanian iconography, which I discussed here.

Anniversaries:

2013 was itself an anniversary year--the 1700th anniversary of the legalization of Christianity under Constantine, whose legacy, as I noted here, continues to be vigorously debated.

2013 is also, of course, the lead-up to the centenary of the Great War, about which we have already seen a steady stream of books in anticipation of the anniversary next year. I discussed a number of those books here and more recently here. That war, of course, brought down many empires, and one study of their collapse was noted here.

Ecclesiology:

The papacy was also, of course, the object of much comment this year, a good deal of it, however ironically, from me. See here, e.g. Or for a vastly more authoritative treatment, perhaps even bordering on infallible, see here.

From Orthodox scholars, see this very important book by an Orthodox theologian, of which I have a review forthcoming next year for the British journal, Reviews in Religion and Theology: George Demacopoulos, The Invention of Peter: Apostolic Discourse and Papal Authority in Late Antiquity. As I noted in my review, this book shows--as other recent studies have--that the history of the papacy, and of East-West relations, is considerably more complicated than either Western apologists for the papacy, or Eastern critics of it, have usually allowed.

Much discussion in the last six weeks or so has focused on Pope Francis and his plans for reforms in the structure of the Catholic Church and his calling of a so-called synod of bishops in Rome. That misnamed institution was recently studied here.

The Ethiopian Church, the largest Orthodox church in Africa, is starting to garner more scholarly attention. One recent study of Ethiopian ecclesiology was noted here.

Finally, papal primacy is treated in a new book by an Orthodox theologian which I read in mss. form and am happy to see in print. It deserves careful reading from Catholic and Orthodox Christians alike.

The role of the YMCA in 20th-century Russian Christianity, and Russian relations with Western Christians, was treated in a fascinating new book which our reviewer praised. That book was was noted here.

A new book on post-Soviet religious life, which has been treated in at least a dozen books in English alone in the last decade, was noted here. The rise and role of "secularism" in Russia and Ukraine was discussed here.

As we know, over the last quarter-century or so, there have been considerable numbers of Christians raised in a Western tradition who have headed East. (Some of them, alas, then begin ranting about the "pan-heresy" of ecumenism, an absurd notion discussed here.) Several recent books treat their stories, including converts to Orthodoxy who are philosophers of one sort or another (for more on philosophy in a Byzantine context, see here.) At the beginning of the year I noted a book on converts in general here. Then at the end of the year we had, as I noted a few weeks ago, what promises to be a fascinating and serious scholarly study whose author I hope to interview in the new year. That book, by the Orthodox priest and historian Oliver Herbel, was noted here.

Social Issues:

I've followed a number of on-line discussions this year about the problems of "bourgeois Christianity." The entanglements of economics, class, and faith in North America remains a question I hope to write more about in the coming year.

I've spent more time than I liked this year on the uses and abuses of history, not least by Orthodox Christians against the West. Most happily indeed, we had two first-rate studies this year from Orthodox theologians and historians taking on some of the grossest and most absurd of the caricatures. The first of these was from Marcus Plested on Orthodox Readings of Aquinas. I interviewed Plested here. His book was reviewed this year in Logos: A Journal of Eastern Christian Studies, and the review was entirely laudatory.

The other collection that was supposed to be out in the summer was just released last month under the editorial direction of Fordham's two outstanding Orthodox theologians: Orthodox Constructions of the West. This highly welcome and overdue collection was noted in some detail here. I will continue to discuss it in the weeks ahead. If you could only buy one book this year, I'd give this one the most serious consideration.

Middle East:
For more than a decade now we have watched a steady stampede of Eastern Christians out of the Middle East. For the last three years, those who remained, especially in places like Egypt and Syria, were said by some early and hopeful commentators to be living through a so-called Arab "spring" but today we more correctly speak of the lack thereof, as noted here.

Music:
The death, just two weeks ago, of the well known and Orthodox composer John Tavener put me in mind of several of his beautiful and deeply haunting pieces. For those see these two CDs (inter alia): Tavener: Sacred Music and Best of John Tavener.
Developments in Byzantine chant were noted in this new book.

Finally, just last weekend I interviewed Sarah Hinlicky Wilson about her book on Elisabeth Behr-Sigel.

Movies:
Finally, though it has been out for several years, I only got around to seeing Ostrov (The Island), this year with my students. My thoughts on it are here. If you've not seen it, do yourself a favor over Christmas and watch it.

The journal Put', or The Way, was one of the major
vehicles for philosophical and religious discussion among Russian
émigrés in Paris from 1925 until the beginning of World War II. The
Russian language journal, edited by Nicholas Berdyaev among others, has
been called one of the most erudite in all Russian intellectual history;
however, it remained little known in France and the USSR until the
early 1990s.

This is the first sustained study of the Russian émigré theologians and other intellectuals in Paris who were associated with The Way and
of their writings in the journal. Although there have been studies of
individual members of that group, this book places the entire generation
in a broad historical and intellectual context. Antoine Arjakovsky
provides assessments of leading religious figures such as Berdyaev,
Bulgakov, Florovsky, Nicholas and Vladimir Lossky, Mother Maria
Skobtsova, and Afanasiev, and compares and contrasts their philosophical
agreements and conflicts in the pages of The Way. He examines
their intense commitment to freedom, their often contentious struggles
to bring the Christian tradition as experienced in the Eastern Church
into conversation with Christians of the West, and their distinctive
contributions to Western theology and ecumenism from the perspective of
their Russian Orthodox experience. He also traces the influence of these
extraordinary intellectuals in present-day Russia, Western Europe, and
the United States.

I've been reading Arjakovsky and corresponding with him off-and-on for several years now. I have long been an admirer of his scholarship for its gracefulness, its openness, and its refusal to reduce Orthodoxy to an ideology with which to club those who differ--something I see too much of. Arjakovsky is an admirable figure not only as a scholar, but also for his work as founding director of the Institute of Ecumenical Studies at the Ukrainian Catholic University in Lviv. Those who are aware of post-1991 relations between Russian Orthodox (which is Arjakovsky's tradition) Christians and Ukrainian Catholic Christians will know how remarkable a thing that is. Having left there recently, he currently teaches and works at the Collège des Bernardins in Paris.

My debts to Antoine are considerable. In fact, one of the very first things I posted on this blog when I started in 2010 was a discussion of his book Church, Culture, and Identity. Then, just over two years ago, I had a long discussion about his book on the much-promised "great and holy council" of Orthodoxy. Now at last we have in English his book The Way: Religious Thinkers of the Russian Emigration in Paris and Their Journal, 1925-1940, which tells a crucial chapter in Russian religious history, and so I was glad to have the chance to interview him about this latest book--which began many years ago as his doctoral dissertation. We conducted the interview in French. Perhaps if time allows over the holidays I might work on a translation.

Thursday, December 19, 2013

I am always on the lookout for texts to help my students appreciate the messiness of the encounters between Muslims and Eastern Christians. Sometimes, of course, these encounters have been horrifically bloody and entailed enormous suffering for some Eastern Christians. At other times, however, the two traditions have been able to live alongside one another in relative peace for periods of varying length and for various reasons, even interacting liturgically and spiritually at each other's festivals and shrines. A recent book helps us appreciate some of these latter examples: Margaret Cormack, Muslims and Others in Sacred Space(Oxford University Press, 2012), 256pp.

About this book we are told:

This
collection of seven essays offers wide-ranging and in-depth studies of
locations sacred to Muslims, of the histories of these sites (real or
imagined), and of the ways in which Muslims and members of other
religions have interacted peaceably in sacred times and spaces.

The
volume begins with a discussion by David Damrel of the official,
hostile, Muslim attitude toward practices at shrines in South Asia.
Lance Laird then presents a case study of a shrine holy to Palestinian
Christians, who identify its patron as St. George, as well as to
Palestinian Muslims, who believe that its patron is al Khadr. Ethel Sara
Wolper illustrates how al
Khadr's patronage was used also to show Muslim connections to Christian
sites in Anatolia, and JoAnn Gross's essay explores oral and written
traditions linking shrines in Tajikistan to traditional Muslim locations
and figures. A chapter by the late Thomas Sizgorich examines how
Christian and Muslim authors used monastic settings to reimagine the
relationship between the two religions, and Alexandra Cuffel offers a
study of attitudes towards the mixing of religious groups in religious
festivals in eleventh- to sixteenth-century Egypt. Finally, Eric Ross
shows how the Layenne Sufi order incorporates a singular combination of
Christian and Muslim figures and festivals in its history and
practices.

Muslims and Others in Sacred Space will be an invaluable resource to
anyone interested in the complex meanings of sacred sites in Muslim history.

Wednesday, December 18, 2013

Set for release in March of next year is a paperback version of a book first published in hardcover in 2012: Predrag Cicovacki, Dostoevsky and the Affirmation of Life (Transaction, 2014), 366pp.

About this book the publisher tells us:

Dostoevsky’s philosophy of life is unfolded in this searching analysis of his five greatest works: Notes from the Underground, Crime and Punishment, The Idiot, The Possessed, and The Brothers Karamazov. Predrag Cicovacki deals with a fundamental issue in Dostoevsky’s opus neglected by all of his commentators: How can we affirm life and preserve a healthy optimism in the face of an increasingly troublesome reality? This work displays the vital significance of Dostoevsky’s philosophy for understanding the human condition in the twenty-first century.

The main task of this insightful effort is to reconstruct and examine Dostoevsky’s "aesthetically" motivated affirmation of life, based on cycles of transgression and restoration. If life has no meaning, as his central figures claim, it is absurd to affirm life and pointless to live. Since Dostoevsky’s doubts concerning the meaning of life resonate so deeply in our own age of pessimism and relativism, the central question of this book, whether Dostoevsky can overcome the skepticism of his most brilliant creation, is innately relevant.

This volume includes a thorough literary analysis of Dostoevsky’s texts, yet even those who have not read all of these novels will find Cicovacki’s analysis interesting and enthralling. The reader will easily extrapolate Cicovacki’s own philosophical interpretation of Dostoevsky’s literary heritage.

This book examines the interchange of architecture and ritual in the
Middle and Late Byzantine churches of Constantinople (ninth to fifteenth
centuries). It employs archaeological and archival data, hagiographic
and historical sources, liturgical texts and commentaries, and monastic
typika and testaments to integrate the architecture of the medieval
churches of Constantinople with liturgical and extra-liturgical
practices and their continuously evolving social and cultural context.
The book argues against the approach that has dominated Byzantine
studies: that of functional determinism, the view that architectural
form always follows liturgical function. Instead, proceeding chapter by
chapter through the spaces of the Byzantine church, it investigates how
architecture responded to the exigencies of the rituals, and how church
spaces eventually acquired new uses. The church building is described in
the context of the culture and people whose needs it was continually
adapted to serve. Rather than viewing churches as frozen in time
(usually the time when the last brick was laid), this study argues that
they were social constructs and so were never finished, but continually
evolving.

The churches of the Byzantine era were built to represent heaven on
earth. Architecture, art and liturgy were intertwined in them to a
degree that has never been replicated elsewhere, and the symbolism of
this relationship had deep and profound meanings. Sacred buildings and
their spiritual art underpinned the Eastern liturgical rites, which in
turn influenced architectural design and the decoration which
accompanied it. Nicholas N. Patricios here offers a comprehensive
survey, from the age of Constantine to the fall of Constantinople, of
the nexus between buildings, worship and art. His identification of
seven distinct Byzantine church types, based on a close analysis of 370
church building plans, will have considerable appeal to Byzantinists,
lay and scholarly. Beyond categorizing and describing the churches
themselves, which are richly illustrated with photographs, plans and
diagrams, the author interprets the sacred liturgy that took place
within these holy buildings, tracing the development of the worship in
conjunction with architectural advances made up to the 15th century.
Focusing on buildings located in twenty-two different locations, this
sumptuous book is an essential guide to individual features such as the
synthronon, templon and ambo and also to the wider significance of
Byzantine art and architecture.

Just Wars, Holy Wars, and Jihads
explores the development of ideas of morally justified or legitimate war
in Western and Islamic civilizations. Historically, these ideas have
been grouped under three labels: just war, holy war, and jihad. A large
body of literature exists exploring the development of just war and holy
war concepts in the West and of jihad in Islam. Yet, to date, no book
has investigated in depth the historical interaction between Western
notions of just or holy war and Muslim definitions of jihad. This book
is a major contribution to the comparative study of the ethics of war
and peace in the West and Islam. Its twenty chapters explore two broad
questions:

1. What historical evidence exists that Christian and
Jewish writers on just war and holy war and Muslim writers on jihad knew
of the other tradition?

2. What is the evidence in treatises,
chronicles, speeches, ballads, and other historical records, or in
practice, that either tradition influenced the other?

The book
surveys the period from the rise of Islam in the early seventh century
to the present day. Part One surveys the impact of the early Islamic
conquests upon Byzantine, Syriac, and Muslim thinking on justified war.
Part Two probes developments during the Crusades. Part Three focuses on
the early modern period in Europe and the Ottoman Empire, followed by
analysis of the era of European imperialism in Part Four. Part Five
brings the discussion into the present period, with chapters analyzing
the impact of international law and terrorism on conceptions of just war
and jihad.

This book, the publisher tells us, does several things. Inter alia, it:

Offers an accessible introduction to the thought of Georges Florovsky

Presents a new interpretation of twentieth-century Orthodox theology that revises the standard narrative of Russian émigré theology

Contextualizes Florovsky's neopatristic theology through analysis of different currents of the Paris school of Orthodox theology

Discusses little known aspects of Florovsky's biography
Draws on unpublished works and correspondence

Moreover, the publisher says:

Georges Florovsky is the mastermind of a 'return to the Church Fathers' in twentieth-century Orthodox theology. His theological vision-the neopatristic synthesis-became the main paradigm of Orthodox theology and the golden standard of Eastern Orthodox identity in the West. Focusing on Florovsky's European period (1920-1948), this study analyses how Florovsky's evolving interpretation of Russian religious thought, particularly Vladimir Solovyov and Sergius Bulgakov, informed his approach to patristic sources. Paul Gavrilyuk offers a new reading of Florovsky's neopatristic theology, by closely considering its ontological, epistemological and ecclesiological foundations.
It is common to contrast Florovsky's neopatristic theology with the 'modernist' religious philosophies of Pavel Florensky, Sergius Bulgakov, and other representatives of the Russian Religious Renaissance. Gavrilyuk argues that the standard narrative of twentieth-century Orthodox theology, based on this polarization, must be reconsidered. The author demonstrates Florovsky's critical appropriation of the main themes of the Russian Religious Renaissance, including theological antinomies, the meaning of history, and the nature of personhood. The distinctive features of Florovsky's neopatristic theology—Christological focus, 'ecclesial experience', personalism, and 'Christian Hellenism'—are best understood against the background of the main problematic of the Renaissance. Specifically, it is shown that Bulgakov's sophiology provided a polemical subtext for Florovsky's theology of creation. It is argued that the use of the patristic norm in application to modern Russian theology represents Florovsky's theological signature.
Drawing on unpublished archival material and correspondence, this study sheds new light on such aspects of Florovsky's career as his family background, his participation in the Eurasian movement, his dissertation on Alexander Herzen, his lectures on Vladimir Solovyov, and his involvement in Bulgakov's Brotherhood of St Sophia.

The Byzantine mystic, writer, and monastic leader Symeon the New Theologian is considered a saint by the Orthodox Church. The Lifewas written more than 30 years after his death by Symeon’s disciple and apologist Niketas Stethatos. This translation, based on an authoritative Greek edition, makes it accessible to English readers for the first time.

Tuesday, December 10, 2013

Almost three years ago when it first emerged, I spent considerable time reviewing the two-volume hardcover version of the Encyclopedia of Orthodox Christianity edited by John McGuckin, whom I interviewed here. I noted that this was a major reference work that deserved a place in serious research libraries. Those of you who may rightly have wanted a copy for your own personal library may have understandably found the price a bit steep. Well, happily, in January the publisher is bringing out a very affordable paperback version, so now there really is no excuse for you not to get a copy of The Concise Encyclopedia of Orthodox Christianity (Wiley-Blackwell, 2014), 592pp.

About this book we are told that it is:

Based on the acclaimed two-volume Encyclopedia of Eastern Orthodox Christianity (Wiley Blackwell, 2011), and now available for students, faculty, and clergy in a concise single-volume format

An
outstanding reference work providing an accessible English language
account of the key historical, liturgical, doctrinal features of Eastern
Orthodoxy, including the Non-Chalcedonian churches

Explores the
major traditions of Eastern Orthodoxy in detail, including the
Armenian, Byzantine, Coptic, Ethiopic, Slavic, Romanian, Syriac churches

Uniquely
comprehensive, it is edited by one of the leading scholars in the field
and provides authoritative articles by a team of leading international
academics and Orthodox figures

Monday, December 9, 2013

Transactions Publishers recently sent me their 2014 catalogue and in there we find several books of interest for release next year beginning, in February, with Samuel Totten, ed., Plight and Fate of Children During and Following Genocide (Transaction, 2014), 225pp. Totten is the author of numerous other studies on genocide. This particular book looks at several genocides, including the Armenian, as the publisher notes in this blurb:

Plight and Fate of Children During and Following Genocide examines why and how children were mistreated during genocides in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Among the cases examined are the Australian Aboriginals, the Armenian genocide, the Holocaust, the Mayans in Guatemala, the 1994 Rwanda genocide, and the genocide in Darfur. Two additional chapters examine the issues of sexual and gender-based violence against children and the phenomenon of child soldiers.

Following an introduction by Samuel Totten, the essays include: "Australia’s Aboriginal Children"; "Hell is for Children"; "Children: The Most Vulnerable Victims of the Armenian Genocide"; "Children and the Holocaust"; "The Fate of Mentally and Physically Disabled Children in Nazi Germany"; "The Plight and Fate of Children vis-à-vis the Guatemalan Genocide"; "The Plight of Children During and Following the 1994 Rwandan Genocide"; "Darfur Genocide"; "Sexual and Gender-Based Violence against Children during Genocide"; and, "Child Soldiers." Contributors include: Colin Tatz, Henry C. Theriault, Asya Darbinyan, Rubina Peroomian, Jeffrey Blutinger, Amanda Grzyb, Elisa von Joeden-Forgey, Sara Demir, Hannibal Travis, and Samuel Totten.

The editor and several of the contributors have personally investigated and witnessed the aftermath of genocidal campaigns.

The Grandchildren is a collection of intimate,
harrowing testimonies by grandchildren and great-grandchildren of
Turkey’s "forgotten Armenians"—the orphans adopted and Islamized by
Muslims after the Armenian genocide. Through them we learn of the
tortuous routes by which they came to terms with the painful stories of
their grandparents and their own identity. The postscript offers a
historical overview of the silence about Islamized Armenians in most
histories of the genocide.

When Fethiye Çetin first published her groundbreaking memoir in Turkey, My Grandmother,
she spoke of her grandmother’s hidden Armenian identity. The book
sparked a conversation among Turks about the fate of the Ottoman
Armenians in Anatolia in 1915. This resulted in an explosion of debate
on Islamized Armenians and their legacy in contemporary Muslim families.

The Grandchildren (translated from Turkish) is a follow-up to My Grandmother,
and is an important contribution to understanding survival during
atrocity. As witnesses to a dark chapter of history, the grandchildren
of these survivors cast new light on the workings of memory in coming to
terms with difficult pasts.

Friday, December 6, 2013

When we last met, we heard from one of the contributors to the collection Orthodox Constructions of the West on the question of primacy in Orthodox ecclesiology. Let us now proceed back to the beginning of the book and the introduction and opening historical essays, all of which are, alone, worth the price of the book. As I noted in my first comments, this is an invaluable book that deserves the widest possible audience.

The editors provide the introduction, noting that it is not designed to be a comprehensive re-telling of the history of relations between East and West. Nevertheless, they do set forth an expansive and carefully considered narrative which goes some considerable distance toward "clearing the swamp" (Stanley Hauerwas) of received notions. (Many of the shibboleths people repeat in the dolorous narrative of East-West division are manifestly of recent vintage, and many issues we today commonly insist are paramount were of little concern to our forebears.) But more than that, the editors set forth the vision of this volume, and of the conference that preceded it, noting that "the categories of East and West are always fluid, always multiform, and almost always projections of an imagined difference" (2; my emphasis). This emphasis on an imagined difference is a leitmotif in many of the essays that follow.

Robert Taft's essay is vintage Taft. Much of it will, of course, be very familiar to those who read Taft. Parts of this paper, in fact, were used in another paper of his at the Orientale Lumen conference in 2011 when I was on a panel with him and others, including Sr. Vassa Larin of ROCOR; and Met. Kallistos Ware, the retired Greek Orthodox theologian from Oxford. Taft's opening is worth quoting in extenso because it sums up perfectly my own views of, approach towards, and love for the Orthodox Christian East:

I consider the Orthodox Churches the historic apostolic Christianity of the East and sister churches of the Catholic Church;...I recognize and rejoice in the fact that Orthodox peoples remain Orthodox; the Catholic Church should support and collaborate with the Orthodox Churches in every way, foster the most cordial relations with them, earnestly work to restore communion with them, recognize their legitimate interests especially on their home ground, avoid all proselytism among their flocks there or elsewhere, not seek in any way to undercut them, nor rejoice in or exploit their weaknesses, nor fish in their pond, nor seek to convert their faithful to the Catholic Church.

After this, Taft notes that it's important to begin with self-criticism, and so he goes into some detail about how his own Jesuit predecessors badly mangled relations with the Christian East in places such as India, Ethiopia, and Eastern Europe, especially, of course, what is today known as Ukraine. This latter brings to mind the controverted history of "Uniatism," about which Taft is as blunt and detailed here as in the rest of the essay.

Having criticized the Catholic Church in unsparing terms, Taft then lists a number of areas where we are still waiting for more honest self-criticism and -assessment from the Orthodox. By laying out the facts, Taft shows how, e.g., the idea that no Orthodox country ever used the power of the state to compel non-Orthodox to believe is revealed to be without foundation--both in the early Byzantine period (cf. the fate of the Copts or Armenians) and later as under, e.g., the Russian tsars. The idea that the residents of Constantinople in 1204 were as pure and innocent as the driven snow, and thus complete victims of the Fourth Crusade, conveniently overlooks the fact of a pogrom against the Latins in the city organized and murderously carried out by the Greeks in 1182. Orthodox treatment of Greek Catholics in Romania and Ukraine in the immediate post-war period of the 1940s is another area where frank admission is still wanting. The point of this list (and other many examples Taft provides) is not to engage in a tit-for-tat--what Taft memorably in 2011 called the "my hands are cleaner than yours" approach to history; but simply to show that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of our romanticized pasts.

Taft's essay is followed by two others, equally historically impressive in different ways though less widely focused. The historian Tia Kolbaba, author of such important studies (which I had expertly reviewed in Logos: A Journal of Eastern Christian Studies) as Inventing Latin Heretics: Byzantines and the Filioque in the Ninth Century and The Byzantine Lists: ERRORS OF THE LATINS, draws on her historical expertise to treat relations between Byzantines, Armenians, and Latins on the question of whether to use yeast in the eucharistic bread, a controversy she traces to the tenth century. This is a fascinating essay in which she reveals that the common problem of the time was an inability to conceive of difference that was not seen as "heretical," a term which, she notes, still needs further historical elaboration and differentiation in the Byzantine period.

Kolbaba's essay is followed by "Light from the West: Byzantine Readings of Aquinas" by Marcus Plested, who has, of course, recently published an entire book on Orthodoxy and Aquinas, which I discussed here while interviewing the author here. In the next installment, we'll look at what Plested unearths here, and a few of the other essays that follow. To be continued.

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About Me

I am the editor of Logos: A Journal of Eastern Christian Studies; author of Orthodoxy and the Roman Papacy; a tenured associate professor and chairman of the Dept. of Theology and Philosophy at the University of Saint Francis in Fort Wayne, Indiana; and a subdeacon of the Ukrainian Greco-Catholic Church (UGCC) resident in the Eparchy of St. Nicholas of Chicago.